Brazil Holiday Violence: Femicide Case Upgraded After Death, Arrests in Separate Killings

Overview

• After the death of Tainara Souza Santos, 31, São Paulo authorities reclassified the Marginal Tietê case to consummated femicide, with suspect Douglas Alves da Silva remaining in preventive custody under a law that now sets a 20–40 year penalty for the crime.
• In Rio de Janeiro, Civil Police arrested in a hospital a man who confessed to fatally shooting military police officer Belck Viana Thomaz during an attempted robbery in Engenho Novo, and investigators are seeking the motorcycle driver who fled.
• In Salvador’s Brotas neighborhood, Arthur Cesar Santos de Santana, 25, and Lívia Denise Dias de Souza, 23, were shot outside a church, and a 31-year-old suspect was arrested in flagrante as the DHPP investigates the motive.
• In Jaguariúna (SP), Caio César dos Santos Bartolomeu, 18, was arrested after fatally stabbing his stepfather, Leandro Flaeschen Moreira, during a Christmas gathering, injuring four others and then stabbing three strangers before being subdued.
• In Recife’s Dois Unidos neighborhood, two men on a motorcycle opened fire during a Christmas gathering, killing José Alex Rodrigues dos Santos, 38, and wounding three people, including a 12-year-old, with the homicide task force reporting no arrests.